Huge trout caught Upper D River

moon1284 wrote:
No doubt there are fish that size there. Seems wierd he is using a boat net but is outside of a boat. From the mud on the shore it looks like it was caught in a slow probably deep pool with no current. I have some ideas where it might be but they probably aren't correct.

The fish could have came from the lake but not neccesarily, there is enough food in the rivers themselves. It's relatively common knowledge large fish flush over the dams during high water events.

With all of the bugs on the water right now I have no clue why anyone would fish a #20 olive, but maybe that's why I havent caught a 28 inch trout...
Click to expand...

As far as the boat net, I assumed they beached the drift boat and pic was taken along the bank.



 
moon1284 wrote:
No doubt there are fish that size there. Seems wierd he is using a boat net but is outside of a boat. From the mud on the shore it looks like it was caught in a slow probably deep pool with no current. I have some ideas where it might be but they probably aren't correct.

The fish could have came from the lake but not neccesarily, there is enough food in the rivers themselves. It's relatively common knowledge large fish flush over the dams during high water events.

With all of the bugs on the water right now I have no clue why anyone would fish a #20 olive, but maybe that's why I havent caught a 28 inch trout...
Click to expand...

Even a fat guy(or girl) likes a jelly bean every once in a while!
 
Afish-

That is what I thought too, but I couldnt figure out why you would need to beach a boat in water like that land a fish. Even if it was in fast water and you pulled anchor you could pull anchor and drop it in the slow water.

It did say the guy was from Binghamton and everyone knows they do things backwards there...

I'm allowed to say that (I think) I am a suny binghamton alum.

When someone first texted me the screenshot I thought it was a pellet head from private water. The background and no boat but boat net throws me way off. Plus it looks like he was dressed awfully warm.

I'm still not 100% convinced it isn't but more than likely I'm wrong and it was a huge fish from the upper del that ate a size 20 olive.
 
They go over the dam and get in the river. Many examples over the years and a couple on small dries.
 
lower river (bucks county) has browns that size maybe they travel upstream in the fall.
 
This one looks like a river fish, or at least one that’s been in the river for a while, lake fish tend to be silver on the sides, dark on the top.

Fish this size used to be more common up there, they are common in the lake above. NYC used to shut the bottom of the dam and allow most of the water to come over the top until June 1st or whenever the water stopped on its own. Millions of alewifes and thousands of trout would be washed over during wet springs. The locals were on to it and would line up in deposit, harvesting them on rapalas and alligator spoons. I’ve had some of the best big fish days of my life up there using big saltwater patterns.

Be careful what you wish for: Now NYC releases like mad to prevent water (and big trout) from coming over the top. It would take an excessively big rain event to “stock” the upper west again. I for one miss it.

Mark C
 
Avg age of a 20 inch river fish is prob 5 years old, 4-5 inches per year gets you around the max a fish who was in the river the whole time is going to be. There is probably an extremely low % that get older than that in the river, but hey they're probably out there, finding one is the dream. That being said, that is an awesome fish and I would probably never shut up about it if I had caught it.
 
As far as trout going over dams or not, trout are known to move throughout river systems at times. I don't think it's out of the question that a fish intentionally goes over a dam now and again. After all, they have no idea that it will be a one way trip.
 
As far as the boat net, I assumed they beached the drift boat and pic was taken along the bank.
Click to expand...

They were not in a drift boat. A recent article says that he was bank fishing with his girlfriends 4 year old son, and a Good Samaritan netted the trout for him.
 
"...one of the most highly pressured rivers around..."

It's about to get a lot more pressure.
 
Congrats to the young man who caught that monster, especially the way he did it. All of the skepticism reminds me of when an amazing whitetail is killed, everyone wants to question it's legitimacy, and often legality. I think a lot of the time it's the "I wish it were me" folks.
 
That makes a lot of sense that someone in a drift boat landed it for him. Sandfly is also onto something with his post.
 
Wow, What a beast! Congrats!
 
Awesome catch awesome fish biggest brown I ever caught was on a small dry
 
Haven't been on here in a while. I had the photos sent to me by another forum member that knows the angler. I said something didn't look right ...the river bottom, the lack of knotweed, kid in shorts, etc. After finding out a little bit more, I guess that it actually happened.

It's not often you're going to see a fish that size eating on top. To find a fish that size eating olives would be even more rare. Hopefully the fish survived the prolonged battle and photo session.

Since the covid shutdown, I've spent most of my time living with a buddy in his home on the WB. He fishes the lake a good bit and has for 25+ years. He reviewed the pics with me the day it was posted and felt confident that it was not a recent lake refugee. It's build is thick but not as thick as most lake fish. If you compare it to the 32" fish taken a few years ago on a caddis..... not even close. The 32" fish was definitely a lake escaped tank. This recent fish may have been a lake fish originally but the color and shape makes me think it's been a river resident for a few years. As someone mentioned, I wouldn't be surprised if the fish came from above one of the impoundments.

Based on my 30 days fishing there this spring and the bizarre season it's been, that fish is beyond impressive. In 30 days, I had 3-4 days with hatches and and 20 days of 20 mph upriver winds. You'd have to really try hard not to find a hatch up there in the spring...but I managed to do it. LoL.
 
Love the last line of the Blog post...

"So that’s the real secret to catching a trophy brown on one of the most highly pressured rivers around: there isn’t one. Show up day after day and get to fishing because you never know when an ordinary afternoon will turn into one you’ll never forget."

https://www.benjaminburgholzer.com/post/the-real-story-behind-the-28-brown-caught-on-a-size-20-bwo-on-the-upper-delaware?fbclid=IwAR1M8mCkpNKlmDlZL62JXipU-XHJnz_G4GBJ2wcJO0-6dsL4xRy_IKZ5ZXM
 
This was posted on another board I frequent.

Hey Guys,

I am the guy in the drift boat and it is my net but I didn't net it. A friend of mine did. I was trying to help him but when I saw the size of the fish I did not want to anchor up and risk getting the fish tied in the anchor. I called a friend who was fishing upstream who ran down and I hurled my boat net to him. I watched the whole thing. It was a size 20 olive. The best part of the story is when he hooked the fish he had no idea how big it was and handed the rod to his four or five year old son who played the fish for about five minutes. The fish was just sitting at the bottom, then it came up and splashed its tail, and everyone knew it was a special fish and he took the rod back. His name is Nick not Mike. I am attaching a picture of the fish on the board. You can see I am holding the board and he has his hand under the fish. We should have flattened it out and it would have measured 28.5-29Click image for larger version.

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ID: 12975 That is my dog Melo and my 16 year old son was there too.
 
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